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The Siege of Cambrai took place from 20 March to 19 April 1677 during the Franco-Dutch War. ==Background== As a Principality dependent on the Holy Roman Empire and close to the border of the Kingdom of France, submitted to Spain since 1543, Cambrai was besieged several times by the kings of France (in 1477 by Louis XI of France and, between 1581 and 1595, by Henry III of France and Henry IV of France). Sully and Richelieu had established a national policy of "putting () in its first strength and its former splendor", and "put France in all places where was ancient Gaul", which included Artois, Hainaut and the provinces of the Netherlands. During the reign of Louis XIV, Cambrai was besieged unsuccessfully by the French in 1649 and again in 1657. In 1667, Louis XIV, invoking the right of devolution to justify the claims of his wife Maria Theresa of Spain on several Spanish provinces, address to the Regent of Spain, Marie-Anne of Austria, a "Treaty on the rights of the most Christian Queen on various states of the monarchy of Spain " and then without waiting for an answer commenced hostilities in May. During the summer of 1667 the French took Charleroi, Tournai, Douai and Lille and in February 1668 the Franche-Comté. By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) Spain abandoned the cities of Charleroi, Binche, Ath, Douai, Tournai, Oudenarde, Lille, Armentieres, Courtrai, Bergues and Furnes. These achievements marked a significant advance but did not establish a defensible border: two prominent areas remained Spanish, between St. Omer and Ypres on the one hand and between Cambrai and Valenciennes on the other. Cambrai was in effect a peninsula tied to the Spanish Netherlands by Bouchain and Valenciennes sandwiched between Arras to the west and Le Quesnoy and Landrecies to the east (French since the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659). In 1673 Vauban advocated in a letter to Louvois a defensive military doctrine known as the "backyard of the King" which called for a straighter border: "Therefore, whether by treaty or by a good war, Monsignor , always preach the quadrature, not of the circle, but of the backyard. It is a beautiful and good thing to be able to hold owns ground with two hands. " In 1672, hostilities resumed against the Republic of the Protestant Netherlands. With a professional army well paid and well organized which includes more than 279,000 men, boasting a powerful artillery, the French monarchy was then the best army in Europe. Facing it, the strongholds of the Spanish Netherlands were defended by a few thousand men, often poorly paid mercenaries, and bourgeois companies offering little more than their courage. In spring 1676 Bouchain and Condé-sur-l'Escaut were occupied by the French and Valenciennes was stormed on 17 March 1677. Louis XIV, "ensuring forever the rest of his borders", decided to take Cambrai and attended in person the siege of the city, while his brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans besieged Saint-Omer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Siege of Cambrai (1677)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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